Robshaw's reward the work of many

Sun, Jun 19, 2016, 10:36 AM
Matt Lewis
by Matt Lewis
Nine months to turn it around for Robshaw. Photo: ARU Media/Stuart Warmsley
Nine months to turn it around for Robshaw. Photo: ARU Media/Stuart Warmsley

It's no surprise that former England captain Chris Robshaw is loving is rugby again after coming through the darkest time of his career. 

Robshaw led England to an early pool exit at last year's World Cup and when Eddie Jones took over, the backrower also lost the captaincy to hooker Dylan Hartley.

Fast forward nine months and he has been part of a Grand Slam-winning England side and topped his 50tb cap by playing in England's first series win in Australia.

"It's been a special week for me, when I found out I was starting guaranteed to be on the pitch to get that 50 up," he said.

Robshaw, who turned in a man of the match performance, said the support of his family and friends helped him through a challenging time.

"It was a pretty tough part of my career," he said.

"My partner Camilla was fantastic about bringing me back from those tough times in particular, (as well as) the family, the coaches, the players.

"Yeah, it was tough but this series wasn't about the World Cup, that's been and gone.

Robshaw following England's defeat to Australia at the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Photo: Getty ImagesRobshaw said he'd found a new motivation in this new England team, with a drive to constantly improve.

"I'm enjoying it at the moment, I'm enjoying playing alongside the guys, everytime you go to training you look at the guys out there and you want to be better, you want to impress them, you want to go out there and prove to them that you should be in there."

In what will go down as one of the best defensive efforts seen in recent memory, England made 215 tackles to Australia's 81 had just 32 per cent of the possession, but still managed to win by 16 points.

And Robshaw says the job is far from done.

'Once the dust settles and we look back and the emotions gone and all that and playing one of the best attacking sides in World Rugby in their own patch, we knew it was going to be tough," he said.

"We can wait for next week to finish it off properly.

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